{"id":201378,"date":"2022-08-23T17:17:50","date_gmt":"2022-08-23T11:47:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=201378"},"modified":"2022-08-23T17:17:50","modified_gmt":"2022-08-23T11:47:50","slug":"pill-pushers-dolo-pil-another-reminder-of-dubious-doctor-pharma-relationships-generics-can-minimise-the-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/pill-pushers-dolo-pil-another-reminder-of-dubious-doctor-pharma-relationships-generics-can-minimise-the-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"Pill pushers: Dolo PIL another reminder of dubious doctor-pharma relationships. Generics can minimise the problem"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/strong>: The post is based on the article \u201cPill pushers: Dolo PIL another reminder of dubious doctor-pharma relationships. Generics can minimise the problem\u201d <\/strong>published in\u00a0The Times of India <\/b>on\u00a023rd<\/sup>\u00a0August 2022<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Syllabus:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>GS 3 \u2013 Changes in industrial policy and their effects on industrial growth.<\/p>\n

Relevance<\/strong>: About the pill-pushing\u00a0activity of pharma firms.<\/p>\n

News<\/strong>: The Federation of Medical & Sales Representatives Association of India (FMRAI) has moved to the court with public interest litigation (PIL), accusing the marketer of Dolo-650 of bribing doctors with \u201cfreebies\u201d worth \u20b91,000 crores to recommend the tablet. This has again put the doctor-pharmaceutical firm relationship under scrutiny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Must read: Pharma oversell clearly needs to be reined back<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
Why pill-pushing is often ignored by patients?<\/h5>\n

a)<\/strong> Demand for medicine is often urgent considering the medical conditions of the patient. For example, the opioid crisis in the US was a particularly shocking demonstration of this, b) <\/strong>There\u2019s a huge information asymmetry between doctor and patient.<\/p>\n

This is clearly evident by India’s out-of-pocket medical expenditure. India’s OOP medical expenditure is 55% of citizens\u2019 total spend, as compared to the global average of 18%.<\/p>\n

Note<\/strong>: In the opioid crisis, pain-management pills were prescribed by doctors across the US, their addictive and harmful after-effects hidden or ignored. It took years for the crisis to be officially acknowledged. Litigation and finally bankruptcy filings by drug manufacturers followed.<\/em><\/p>\n

How government is regulating pill-pushing?<\/h5>\n

1)<\/strong> Since 2015, for pharma firms, there\u2019s a voluntary code of marketing practices <\/strong>in place, 2)<\/strong> The Indian Medical Council<\/strong> regulates the conduct of doctors through powers flowing from statutory legislation.<\/p>\n

In both these regulations, the misconduct is expected to be addressed within the fraternity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read more:\u00a0The Draft Drugs, Medical Devices and Cosmetics Bill, 2022: Provisions and Concerns \u2013 Explained, pointwise<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
How does the government regulate pill-pushing?<\/h5>\n

The government should aim to neutralise doctor-pharma \u201cdeals\u201d<\/strong> by 1)<\/strong> Effectively using the government’s existing programme of bulk purchases and sales of generic drugs. Bulk buying provides a price discount of 50-90% over branded medicines, 2)<\/strong> Expanding government distribution program and utilising the existing network of private chemists to improve its effectiveness, 3) Creating awareness about palliatives and the availability of generics can substantially reduce the scope of pill-pushing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Must read:\u00a0<\/strong>Drug Regulations in India \u2013 Explained, pointwise<\/strong><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: The post is based on the article \u201cPill pushers: Dolo PIL another reminder of dubious doctor-pharma relationships. Generics can minimise the problem\u201d published in\u00a0The Times of India on\u00a023rd\u00a0August 2022. Syllabus:\u00a0\u00a0GS 3 \u2013 Changes in industrial policy and their effects on industrial growth. Relevance: About the pill-pushing\u00a0activity of pharma firms. News: The Federation of Medical… Continue reading Pill pushers: Dolo PIL another reminder of dubious doctor-pharma relationships. Generics can minimise the problem<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10311,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[216,10496],"class_list":["post-201378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-3","tag-times-of-india","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704944079},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10311"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201378\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}